The invention relates to a food processor with a motor, and with at least one tool which can be driven by the motor, and with at least one activatable input means for switching on at least one operating process of the food processor, and with operating-process control means, which operating process control means are designed to control the at least one operating process of the food processor, different operating values being present in succession during the execution of the at least one operating process, which operating values may be amended, if required, with the aid of the control means for the operating process.
A food processor of the kind set forth in the first paragraph is known from, for example, the patent document U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,573 A. The control means for the operating process in the known food processor are realized with the aid of a microcomputer which enables control of a multiplicity of operating processes. For example, a kneading process or a chopping process or a mixing process may be controlled and undertaken. In the known food processor, different motor speed values and overall process duration values can be realized by means of the microcomputer provided as the controlling means for the operating process. Furthermore, it is possible to realize different speed profiles for the known food processor. The known food processor, however, is not provided with means or measures to come into operation when an operating process switched on with the aid of a button provided as the input means is interrupted during the execution of the operating process, for example, to be able to add as yet to a receptacle of the food processor an ingredient forgotten before the initial activation of an operating process. If such an action is necessary, in the known food processor, an operating process already initiated must be terminated by switching off the food processor; however, after the addition as yet of a previously forgotten ingredient, the required operating process then has to be started again from the beginning.
It is an object of the invention to eliminate the drawback described above and to realize an improved food processor.
To achieve the object cited above, a food processor according to the invention is provided with features such that a food processor according to the invention can be characterized as follows:
A food processor with a motor, and with at least one tool which can be driven by the motor, and with at least one activatable input means for switching on at least one operating process of the food processor, and with operating-process control means which operating-process control means are designed to control the at least one operating process of the food processor, different operating values being present in succession during the at least one operating process, wherein detecting means being provided, which are designed for detecting the interruption of the at least one operating process, and wherein memory means being provided which are designed for storaging of the operating values present immediately before the interruption of the at least one operating process, and wherein at least one activatable reactivating means being provided which is designed for reactivating the at least one previously interrupted operating process, and wherein the control means for the operating process being designed for starting the continuation of the at least one interrupted operating process following an activation of the at least one reactivating means.
By provision of the features according to the invention, it is achieved in a simple manner that the execution of an operating process carried out with the food processor according to the invention can be interrupted at any state of the process and subsequently can be continued as from the same process state, because the operating values or operating data present in the food processor before the interruption of an operating process can be stored in the memory means provided for this purpose and after reactivation of the food processor or the previously interrupted operating process, the interrupted operating process can be continued with the aid of the operating values previously stored in the memory means. Through provision of the features according to the invention, unnecessarily long operating times are avoided in a food processor according to the invention since, after a deliberate interruption of an activated operating process, this operating process is not run through again from the beginning, but is continued at the process state at which the interruption of the operating process took place. Through provision of the features according to the invention it is also achieved that even in the case of multiple interruptions of a running operating process, unusable operating results are prevented and overloading of the motor is avoided.
In a food processor according to the invention it has proved particularly advantageous if the features as claimed in claim 2 are additionally provided. This offers the advantage that a reactivation of an interrupted operating process is possible only if this reactivation takes place within a predefined time period. This is practically always the case when an interruption of an operating process has been deliberately undertaken by a user of the food processor, since it can then be assumed that the reactivation will also be deliberately undertaken by the user within the predefined time period. On the other hand, there is a high probability that an unwanted reactivation will be prevented; such an unwanted reactivation could occur, for instance, if a child were to initiate an interruption of a started operating process in an unintentional manner.
In a food processor according to the invention it has also proved very advantageous if the features as claimed in claim 3 are additionally provided. The storing of the momentary motor current value and the momentary operating duration value has proved especially important and advantageous in practice, since these are the most important operating values of a food processor. It is to be noted, however, that storage of information on direction of rotation, representing the momentary direction of rotation of the motor, is also useful.
In a food processor according to the invention, the activatable reactivation means may be formed by, for example, a separate reactivation button. For a food processor according to the invention however, it has proved very advantageous if the features as claimed in claim 4 are additionally provided. In this manner it is achieved that each operating process of the food processor is provided with its own reactivating means, which own reactivating means is formed by the input means provided for switching on the operating process in question.
The aspects cited above and further aspects of the invention are apparent from the embodiments described below and are explained on the basis of these embodiments.